On New Year’s Day my Mom and I went to Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park in Rochester, NY. It was bitterly cold outside, so it was great to be able to go inside and smell the humidity and see the plants.

There were several quail babies!

And turtles

It’s so nice to see the colorful plants and flowers during this time of year.

We have been going to Sonnenberg Gardens since the 80’s, and we are really happy that the state took it over and are restoring it. It was a beautiful, sunny day, for a switch, (Mother’s Day is usually cold and rainy) so we had an enjoyable day. The first thing we saw, were geese and their goslings. Like we need more geese, but the goslings are so cute!

Turtles soaking up the sun after this l-o-n-g, c-o-l-d winter:

A frog as green as the slime he is floating with:

Cactus:

Orchids:

Trees:

Repair work in progress:

Repair work completed:
I was so excited they’ve fixed the collanade that bisects the old fashioned garden!

It doesn’t take much to excite me when I find something I’ve never seen alive in person before. I was excited when I saw this Field Horsetail Equisetum arvense, but I had to be really careful while touching it because, as you can see, it is surrounded by poison ivy, and I don’t need to go there ever again.

Found while walking along the West Shore Trail on Onondaga Lake. I still can’t believe I’m walking around this lake, because when I was a kid it was majorly polluted. Now, it’s not as bad, but I see dead fish floating along the shore, so. . . you won’t catch me going in it.

It’s that time of year again! The forced spring bulbs are in blossom at the George Eastman House, and it was as gorgeous as ever this year. It was really tough getting a full shot like I have been able to in the past, because there were so many people there today.

The pink flowers grouped together near the organ really caught our eyes:

It’s just so great to see spring flowers – early!

Especially when it looks like this outside, even though it was in the 40’s today!

Just loving those pinks!

(but not the guy looking at me taking the photo)

They usually have quite a few orchids, but they didn’t have as many this year.

Yeah, taking a photo into a bright window doesn’t really work, but I had to capture more of the color:

Ah, so easy on the eyes,

Beautiful amaryllis:

They had a musicale at 3:00, which was beautiful,

and while listening, I checked out the different moldings from where I was sitting:

All in all, it was such a gorgeous display of color, I felt like I couldn’t get my eyes full:

I had to work late for OHA’s Evening at the Museum, and you know I can’t just sit there without taking pics:

We snorkeled/swam across this river to an old sunken barge and got some big, old square nails. The sky was gorgeous the whole time, but until I get a water camera, I can’t capture the cool stuff I see while in the water! This was after we got back:

Queen Anne’s Lace is blossoming beautifully now:

Along with the Mullein:

And we went snorkeling/swimming every night, if not out of town, then at our favorite local place: